Well, I was going to put together a week in review post like I always do, but I just couldn’t get it together. The first reason is I simply ran out of time. The second reason is that the decision on June 28 loomed so large everything else seemed to pale by comparison. So I want to just share a few thoughts that I have had as I try to grasp the significance of this and what it means to me as an American and a Christian.

“I dreamed I was flying/And high up above my eyes could clearly see/The statue of liberty/Sailing away to sea…” That pretty much sums up my feelings about America right now. When we teach our kids civics, we won’t be able to tell them we live in a republic anymore. That’s staggering, and sobering. I realize there are a lot of Republicans/mainstream conservatives trying to pretend the ruling on June 28 really wasn’t so bad as all that, or maybe it was bad but it wasn’t John Roberts’ fault, and anyway this’ll add fuel to Romney’s fire… to all that I say rubbish. What’s being lost sight of here is that not only was the outcome unremittingly disastrous, doing away with the entire notion of enumerated powers in this nation, but the entire procedure was contemptibly unprincipled and dishonorable. There’s no excuse for what Roberts did, and I can only conclude that he made his last-minute switch out of a desire for approval from the left. While Kennedy, Kennedy of all people, who basically defines “unprincipled,” actually sided with the dissent! It boggles the mind.

That is my reaction as somebody who loves what America should be and was created to be, but who can no longer love what America is. It is my reaction as a citizen of this country and this world. And I believe it is a righteous reaction and a justified reaction. At the same time, I believe that I am not JUST a citizen of this country, or this world. At the same time, I understand WHY I am groaning for that patriot dream, that city undimmed by human tears. It is because one day that dream will become a reality, and one day God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. There will be a new heaven, and a new earth. And like the children at the end of The Last Battle, as they realize that they have finally found the true Narnia, the real Narnia, we will some day find the true America.

But it will be after. After the fall. After the wreckage. After the burning. And then… then… the rebirth. And all shall be well. All manner of thing shall be well.

2 responses to “All Shall Be Well”

“That is my reaction as somebody who loves what America should be and was created to be, but who can no longer love what America is.”

I understand what you mean and often feel that way myself. What helps me is to look at America not as a government or a set of political principles, but as a home and a people. In a certain sense there was an “America” before we had a constitution or a republic, and there will be an America when these have passed or have been replaced.

Absolutely. That’s something I’ve been thinking about and comparing with, say, the Church. The saying goes that the building isn’t the church—people bring the church with them. Similarly, America is Americans. Now given that our society has also gone down the tubes, that doesn’t necessarily help much, but I think it can be encouraging if we focus on the good people of America, the people who really are honorable and worth their salt, and embody everything that’s good about this country.